


Scruba dub dub, lions in the tub

by StarrBomb



Series: Cleaning frenzy [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Basing this off a head canon, and in turn lance starts cleaning the lions, lance is homesick, maybe some hints at black Paladin lance, nudge nudge, pretty much lance always helped his mom clean the house, wink wink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-07
Updated: 2017-03-07
Packaged: 2018-09-30 02:37:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10151480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarrBomb/pseuds/StarrBomb
Summary: Lance didn't realize  how much he missed cleaning. Thankfully the lions don't mind getting cleaned up now and again.





	

It was his mother that got him started.

She would always need help with it, not that she was fragile, she's anything but. But that doesn't mean that she didn't enjoy the help, especially with the cabinets and bookshelves. And Lance didn't mind at all. He loved helping his mom, and cleaning up the house was just one of the things they could do together. Sure, everyone helped out, but it was always Lance who didn't it without being asked. 

And after a while, it became sort of a coping mechanism. Whenever Lance felt overwhelmed, or if his anxiety got to be too much. You would always find him doing dishes or vacuuming. It was therapeutic in a way. It was something that he can control, that got him out of his head. His mom always told him “a clean house is a happy house.”  
It may be overused, but to Lance it always made sense. If the house is clean, then everyone inside the house is happy. Even him.

Lance never realized how much he relied on his family. Always making something to clean up. Always keeping him busy. But now that he's out in space, on a giant castle ship, with only six other people. Lance can't help but miss it. 

at first Lance worked on his room. Mostly dusting, and rearranging his drawers. But after the tenth time rearranging everything, Lance realized that he couldn't clean his room more if he tried. So he moved on to other rooms. Within two weeks, every room in the castle had been dusted, vacuumed, mopped, swept and picked up as need be. The castle was spotless. And Lance felt better. He always did after a good cleaning session, albeit a long one. But it was nice. It reminded him of home; of some normalcy in what is now his life.

But soon the anxiety and the homesickness came back. But there wasn't really anything to clean anymore. It wasn't like there were hyperactive kids that will knock things over anymore. There wasn't anyone constantly making a mess. There wasn't anyone constantly cooking up a storm , sure,Hunk is always cooking, but his moms taught him well on keeping a kitchen clean, so Lance didn't really have dishes to clean. He'll, even their laundry is done by the castle, no help needed there. He remembers when he use to get pretty mad at his family whenever they would create a mess. But now…..now he just wishes he had something to clean. To remind him of home.

Lance was climbing out of blue, feeling a bit down for the count after a nasty fight with the Galra, that unfortunately when through some kind of space mucus ozone that surrounded a moon they were fighting nearby that got all over the lions, gunking up a lot of their movements. Thankfully it did the same to the Galra fleets, so it wasn't that hard to beat them after that. But Lance could practically feel the stuff, and he wasn't even the one covered in it. After taking a good look at Blue, Lance knew that he had to get all that mucus off of her. If it was messing with her movements now, he didn't even want to know how bad it would get once it hardened. After hijacking Pidge's latest project(a set of goggles that can translate written Altean into English, he has to give her props, this is some of her best work.) he found the right soap to use and even some wax that he can use afterwards. Blue was going to be the best looking Lion around. And he got to work. He scrubbed every inch of her till he was sure that all the hunk was off, and even asked her multiple times if he missed a spot. Who told him about every missed spot or hard to reach place. Once he had finished washing off all the mucus, he gave her a much needed waxing. No one could deny that happiness that Blue felt all throughout it and afterwards. And Lance finally had something that he could clean when everything got to be too much. They were both very happy.

It became a regular thing, after that. Whenever he had too much on his mind, Lance would go down and work on Blue. Whether it was the outside or in the cockpit. There have even been a few times where he would work on her maintenance system, but only if it needed fixing and Blue has to walk him through it. And he would talk to her, about everything and anything. About things on Earth or his family. About the others and planets that they have saved. And Blue would listen to it all, very story about when he was little and every worry that plagued his mind. She would send him support, and love and tell him that she was so glad that he was her pilot. They were both happy.

But then things started to get kinda weird. It seems that while Blue was flying just as smooth as ever, some of the other lions were having problems with certain maneuvers and actions. Which definitely slowed down their progress of freeing the galaxy. But the weirdest thing is that the other Lions started to show up in Blue’s hangar whenever Lance went down there to talk with Blue and clean up whatever was left on her from the last battle. At first they would just sit outside of her hangar, not really pushing but definitely making he know that they were there. But it was the Red Lion who got sick of sitting around, she had butted her way into Blue’s hangar and sat next to her. And That was when Lance saw it. Dried Mucus. But that battle was months ago. Lance couldn't help but get mad. He went to check the other lions, and sure enough, there was still dried mucus and other markings from past battles littering the Lions. No wonder the other lions couldn't do maneuvers anymore. There was still gunk clogging up their joints and maybe even in their hydrologics. Lance patted Blue on the nose and apologized, saying that he might not be able to clean her today, because there is no way he's going to let the others stay like that. She sent him warm understanding and told him that the other lions were very grateful that he was doing this for them.

It took him two days of no sleep and barely eating to get all the lions completely cleaned and gave each of them a waxing that had them shining like stars. All the while, no one had gone to check up on him. While that did sting, it was probably for the best. If he had seen any of the others, he would have gone off on them for leaving their lions in such a state.

Soon, the other lions became part of his routine as well. Cleaning the cockpits, washing and waxing the exterior. He was really surprised and honored when Blue told him that Black asked if he could help with his control panel.( it seems that Shiro and Black Had taken a nasty hit during one of their recent battles and Shiro got thrown against the panel.hard.) It was confusing at first, and the damage was more serious than he thought, but thanks to Blue relaying everything Between Lance and Black, he was able to fix him up without much trouble. Without even realizing it, Lance had started talking to the other Lions as well. It started off as complaining about how the others don't clean them like they should, if ever. But soon enough he was talking to them like he does with Blue. And while he doesn't hear them respond, Blue does relay any messages back to him. 

Lance never realized how close he had gotten to the other Lions until after a pretty nasty battle against some sort of squid Robeast. Blue and Red had taken a lot of hits to keep the Galra off of Green who had taken a nasty blow, making them power down. In the end they were able to beat the robeast, but Lance knew that he was going to have to buff out some dents on Blue and Red. Lance had just gotten done with buffing out a pretty nasty dent in Red’s armor, that Keith came into Red’s hangar. And it seems that Keith was not happy to see Lance there.

“What are you doing?”

“Um…”

“Get off of Red. Now.”

“But I'm not do-”

“She's not your Lion. Get off her. NOW.”

That was when Red put up her barrier. Keeping Keith out. Lance couldn't help but snicker. Because now Keith was yelling at Red to let him in. And apparently he was losing the argument, because the barrier didn't go down at all. It didn't even waver when Keith decided that hitting it would get his point across. That was when Lance felt Red give off a kind of purr, at least he thought it was Red. It was probably thanks to Blue, telling him that Red wanted him to keep doing what he was doing. So Lance went on to the next one, and next one even with Keith telling him to go away. Even after Keith left the hangar. And even when Keith came back with Shiro and Allura in tow. 

“Lance?” Lance looked away from his work and looked at Shiro, who looked just as confused as Allura. All the while Keith is behind them, just as mad as when he came in.

“Yeah?”

“What are you doing?”

“Buffing out dents. I saw that Red and Blue had some pretty nasty one after the battle.”

“Ok…...and why are buffing out the dents of the Red Lion?”

“Why don't you go and do that on Blue then!” Ah, and there is Keith. Lance was wondering when he would butt-in. 

“I already did Blue’s.” Ha, suck on that, Keith.

“But why are you doing Red’s, Keith could have-”

“No. he wouldn't.”

Lance climbs down from his spot on the Red lion and heads over to Shiro and Allura. He stopped just at the edge of the barrier. Now he could really see that Keith did not like being called out. 

“You don't know that!!!” 

“Yes. I do.”

Wow, Keith REALLY didn't like being called out on this. But this was going to happen sooner or later, lance is just surprised that it took them this long to realize it.

“Lance, you can't just clean another Paladin’s Lion.”

“Why not. I do it for all the lions.”

“Wha….what?”

“I take care of all the lions. I buff out dents, I wash off gunk, I even clean the cockpits.”

They all look at Lance like he just talked in an unknown language. the fact that Lance has been doing this for all the lions seems to come as a surprise to them. Even Keith lost his anger and is looking at Lance like he's the 8th wonder of the world.

Allura is the first to get back some sense of her voice, quietly asking lance “and they let you? Do all of this?”

“Let me? They almost shoved themselves into Blue’s hangar hoping I would see how much work they needed. Red actually did!” Lance points back to the Red Lion, who still keeps the barrier up, if only to tell Lance that there are still some dents that need to be buffed out.

“How...how long have you been doing this?” Shiro's stutters out, still trying to get a grip on the situation.

“I don't know…...maybe a few months? At least two months.” Lance said, trying to recall how long he's been cleaning all the lions. 

“You've been doing this for that long and never asked us to help? Lance, while the gesture is nice, we can clean our own Lions.”

“Apparently not. You guys didn't even clean off the mucus gunk from MONTHS ago! How did you guys not realize that the reason the lions were slower to respond than usual was because they could barely even bend their joints! If you guys won't even clean them when they OBVIOUSLY need it, then how can they trust you guys to buff out a few dents!”  
Lance said to much. He realized it as soon as it was out of his mouth. He just called out, not just Keith, but ALL of them. That was not how he wanted the conversation to go. Wow, was the that floor panel always so interesting, because there's no way Lance is going to look them in the face after that outburst.

“Lance….I'm sorry.”  
Well that definitely got lance to look up at Keith, who actually looked sincere. Lance can't remember any time Keith has been sincere, well yes he can, but never to Lance. 

“I haven't really been the best when it comes to taking care of Red. But you don't have to do it anymore. I’ll-”  
“Woah! Woah, Keith you don't have to apologize to me about it. Maybe Red, but not me. I love cleaning the Lions. And while it would be nice it you guys helped out once in awhile, I don't want to stop cleaning them.”

“Wait, so you actually like cleaning them?”

“Yeah! It reminds me…..it reminds me of home. I use to help my mom with all the cleaning, so being able to do this, it...it helps with the homesickness.”

Lance couldn't help but get a bit flustered saying it out loud, but he needs to let them know that he enjoys doing this for the lions. He enjoys being able to do this for them. He doesn't want to stop doing this. He can hear Blue purring in the back of his mind, letting him know that the other lions enjoy it just as much as he does. 

“Still, You shouldn't have to do this….. At least not by yourself. They are our lions. But if it means that much to you, I guess we can't really complain. Especially with all that you've done for them.”  
Shiro gestures up to Red.  
“But, you shouldn't have to do all of the work, Lance. It's not fair to you, or the lions.”

Lance nods. He knows that Shiro is right, but he also knows that the lions can be kind of picky about how they get cleaned. For a bunch of robot lions, they are really vocal about what they like and don't like. And this just means that Lance is going to have to teach the others about each lions quirks when it comes to keeping them clean.

“How about I finish up here and everyone can meet up in the break lounge, then we can talk more about it.”

“Why not go now?”

“I'm pretty sure Red isn't going to lower the barrier until I'm done.” Lance stares up at Red, as if staring at her long enough will make her put down the shield. It does not. So win a wave to the others, Lance goes back to buffing out Red, with a much brighter smile than he's had in awhile.

Sure, Lance loves being able to take care of the lions. It reminds him of his mom and his family. It reminds him of home. But the one thing that makes it even better is when others are doing it with you. It helps bring people together, to talk and bond with each other. And if Lance was being honest, he missed that most of all.


End file.
